00:00Looking back, hindsight, it was absolutely the wrong decision, but hindsight's always
00:0420-20, they felt they were doing the right thing at the time.
00:08Mike Golick, Cleveland native, one of the two Mike Golicks on ESPN National Radio, 10
00:16a.m. to noon every single day, talking about the Browns quarterback situation, and yeah,
00:23I mean, it's so funny because, you know, I was listening to the Golicks talk about the
00:29Browns quarterback situation, and it's like, there's really no way to have an even conversation
00:33about this after five years, and what's crazy about that is that the Browns organization
00:38knew that and still were like, it makes total sense that he should be the frontrunner and
00:43be basically handed the job.
00:45No, the Browns are getting beat up all day long nationally for this, and they should,
00:49and they should take any sort of criticism that comes their way from everyone that wants
00:54to discuss this until either Deshaun isn't playing, and even then we can still criticize
00:59him for even making the moves to begin with, or Deshaun proves us all wrong, and at this
01:02point, Nick, I can't find a soul on planet Earth that thinks that Deshaun's going to
01:05eventually turn this thing around and prove everybody wrong.
01:08Now, while we're talking about the Browns, their quarterback situation, Charles Robinson
01:13was on with the midday show today, and one of the themes that he talked about was the
01:19Browns and the situations that they're putting the young players in in that locker room.
01:24If week one's an accurate representation of what this quarterback situation is going to
01:28look like, the offensive situation, the defensive situation, then the whole season becomes about,
01:34okay, clearly we're playing for draft position now.
01:37That's just how 2026 is going to go for us.
01:40How do we not damage the assets we already have on the team that we are confident are going
01:45to be building blocks in the team moving forward?
01:47How much damage is being incurred on the talent on this roster, just losing and being in this
01:53culture and being in this constant assembly line of problems and ineffectiveness and lack
02:00of function and, oh, this is just who we are.
02:03And then when you're ready to win, you have players who don't know what that even looks
02:07like.
02:07They don't even know what that culture even feels like.
02:09I hope that's not what 2026 turns into, but I also didn't think that that's what the
02:15opening game would look like.
02:16Ultimately, the only way you can afford to have Deshaun Watson out there on the field
02:22is if he is bringing some semblance of professionalism and credibility to the offense.
02:30Because there's a lot of young guys on that offense that when the quarterback is rattled
02:36and has procedural penalties out to yin-yang, when the quarterback is rattled and throws
02:40an interception right out of the gate because he's got a defender coming up, so he's trying
02:44to unload that ball quickly because he don't want to get hit.
02:48Like, you can live with that when it's a young quarterback, a rookie quarterback, second-year
02:53quarterback, third-year quarterback that is growing to something.
02:57When the whole reason that the quarterback is there is he's supposed to be the professional
03:01who's been there, seen that, and can operate in chaos, and he's not doing that, it befuddles
03:08me how the Browns could drag this out much longer unless Deshaun can regain some of that
03:13mojo, some of that mentality in this Tampa Bay game.
03:17It just went, when the whole entire locker room, and we're not there yet, I don't think
03:20we're there yet, I think Ronnie Hickman said what he said, but I don't think we're there
03:23yet.
03:23When the whole locker room, though, gets to a spot where it's like, what are they doing?
03:27What is Munkin even thinking?
03:29What is going on?
03:31That's when it becomes really problematic.
03:32Now, I always love these conversations because there's no way to quantify it, and so it's really
03:36hard for someone like myself that likes to use numbers and likes to have hard, raw data
03:41towards things, because this is, there's so many examples across the NFL, just in two
03:45years ago, teams that won four games to then won a lot of games last year.
03:48I'm speaking of Chicago, I'm speaking of Jacksonville, I'm speaking of New England, and it's like
03:52those guys still found a way to suck really badly and then have something good happen the
03:58next year.
03:59Usually, though, that comes with the idea that then there was a lot of changeover in one
04:02way or another.
04:03There was something different that did have to happen and some change that had to happen.
04:06Yeah, and I don't want the change to have to be Todd Munkin.
04:09And in the same way that I don't want the change to have to be Mike Rutenberg if he can't
04:12get out of his own way and, you know, play these players in the way they had been playing
04:17previously and allowing them to play quickly.
04:20I don't want Todd Munkin to be collateral damage over what might have been a well-intended
04:26move with Deshaun.
04:27And I think the reason why it matters, because we're really talking from the locker room perspective
04:31here, I don't want to see Deshaun Watson hang his head again.
04:37You know what I mean?
04:37Like, there were so many times where even though the one, not the false start, but the
04:42delay a game where Deshaun tried to change the play with like three seconds left on the
04:48clock and he got pissed at the center.
04:50And I remember thinking to myself, like, but that was on you.
04:53That was a late change.
04:55The third and two plays, that's the one where the delay a game where he was, he was trying
04:58to push Judkins aside.
04:59Yeah.
04:59But he did so with four seconds left and he's yelling at Judkins like, go, go, go over there.
05:03And it's like, focus on yourself for a second.
05:05Like, Judkins might be in the wrong place.
05:07You have to snap the ball.
05:08Well, but again, like, but then he got frustrated with everybody.
05:10But then like hanging your head like that, that to me is not leadership.
05:15Body language sucks.
05:16There's no other way around.
05:17Getting frustrated with guys.
05:19I understand.
05:19And that is, that can be leadership guys that, you know, I hate that kind of leadership,
05:23but Tom Brady was renowned for snapping on players and getting and chewing them out.
05:28Right.
05:29That's not the same thing as a mistake happens and you walk off the sideline almost every
05:34drive with your head held down.
05:36I just, that, I can't see that one more time.
05:39That is a different level of shame.
05:40None of the drives were ending well.
05:41So I kind of understood what was happening there.
05:43Got to keep your head up.
05:45Like he can fake it in some of these press conferences.
05:47He can fake it for a certain amount of time.
05:49He better fake it better.
05:51Yeah.
05:51Now he needs to be, go ahead.
05:53Yeah.
05:53I realize.
05:54That's fine.
05:55I ran out of air.
05:56That's why I stopped it there.
05:57Not because I'm trying to be cheeky here.
05:59Part of it is, I think that just goes back to, if you're, if you're North star on this
06:03is you don't think Deshaun Watson really wants to play football and doesn't really want
06:06to play football for the Browns in particular, he's not going to dress this up for anybody.
06:09He's not going to try to put on a show for anybody.
06:11He's just going to, all right, that sucked.
06:13I'm going to show you that it sucked and it was what it was.
Comments